The Flatiron Building Museum is featuring a thoroughly original exhibit through to Oct. 21.
‘Botany & the history of medicine, presented by the Lacombe & District Historical Society, ‘takes visitors on an adventure, bringing the landscape of Central Alberta inside, while exploring notable changes in the fields of medicine and botany’.
It’s also something of a milestone for staff at the Museum, with the new space at the Flatiron building providing a spacious means of showcasing all kinds of new exhibits that are in the works.
Prior to that, space for exhibits was largely confined to the Blacksmith Shop Museum or the Michener House Museum.
“Coming here has allowed us to change out our exhibits and to try and get people coming back,” explained Melissa Blunden, the Society’s executive director.
“And with this exhibit, there is a little bit of exploration here to think about the botany side of (local history), and how that has also been important to health and wellness - for example, what you might do before doctors had moved into town,” said Samantha Lee, community engagement and visitor services coordinator.
“We want people to understand the relationships between plants and medicine,” she said.
Blunden agreed.
“One of the big themes of this exhibit also is, what is actually in medicine? Even with the medicines we use today, a lot of them have derivatives of plants,” added Blunden. “What is that relationship like?”
“So it’s kind of this holistic experience of what our community was like 100-plus years ago,” she added.
Other highlights include a closer look at local pioneer doctors including Dr. E.M Sharpe and Dr. Dean Locke, plus an opportunity to learn more about Lacombe’s early pharmacies.
For more information, check out www.lacombemuseum.com or find them on Facebook at ‘Lacombe & District Historical Society’.
Another fascinating aspect of this exhibit is the display of some pressed flowers that were found in several donated books dating back to the early 1900s.
The discovery was originally made back in 2019.
“We had this stack of books, and I just opened one - and there was what we think was a corsage or maybe a graduation bouquet. The book just flipped open to it, so there was more to these books than what we first thought!”
“They are from a family from Gull Lake,” said Blunden.
